African people in bar nicked beer barrel (5)
I believe the answer is:
bantu
'african people' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'bar nicked beer barrel' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'bar' could be 'ban' (bar can mean to ban or prohibit) and 'ban' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bantu that I've seen before include "Group of languages including Swahili and Xhosa" , "Southern African people and language" , "African tongue" , "Type of language" , "African language family" .)